British luxury carmaker Bentley is eyeing on revamping its portfolio of models to usher in a new era of electrification. Between the transition, the next Flying Spur is about to be completely redesigned as an even more luxurious and distinct sedan that will be the last model before the new direction takes hold.
The four-door Flying Spur will take on rivals like Rolls-Royce Ghost and Mercedes-Maybach S600. There will be a distinct shift in style away from the overt sportiness of the Continental GT, even though the two models will continue to share a lot of their underpinnings. The new model will be a curtain call for Bentley’s current design philosophy before a completely new look for Bentley is introduced, which is likely to break cover with the company’s first electric model.
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All the designing of the new Flying Spur and the entire family of Continental models has completed some time ago. The Continental GT coupe was revealed in Frankfurt last year, and the Continental GTC Cabriolet will be launched later this year as the second model in the lineup. Those two were designed alongside each other before attention then turned towards the new Flying Spur.
Achieving distinct surfaces and sharper swage lines has traditionally been quite a challenge with aluminium body panels, but it appears Bentley has managed to overcome those challenges to differentiate the styling of the Flying Spur from the Continental GT. The original Flying Spur had ‘Continental’ as part of its name, but that was dropped with the arrival of the current second-generation, and this new model will continue to distance itself further from the rest of the Continental family.
There will be no shortage of powerplants for the new model which are expected to include Bentley’s V-8 and W12 petrol options, and a plug-in hybrid based on a V-6 petrol engine instead of any sort of diesel now that they are becoming persona non-grata in the current climate. Hybrid options will be particularly important as far as bolstering Bentley sales in China are concerned, although there will eventually be a range-topping Speed variant featuring a higher-performance engine that will also feature in the Continental GT and GTC.